Looper



J. T. LEACH Feb. 3, 1931.

LOOPER Filed July' 18, 1929 2 .Sheets-Sheet 1 J. T. LEAcH Feb. 3, 1931.

LOOPER Filed July 18,

1929 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 'fx RNEY INVENTOR GREEN k R50 iatented Feb. 3, 1931 UNITED STATES AJosnrn T. LEACH, oF TALL RIVER, MASSACHUSETTS ILOPER Application inea :ruiy 1s, 192e. serial No. 379,272.

ing loops after severance by the looper and before final trimming to complete the design Woven into the cloth.

The pneumatic apparatus, in the present instance, is applied to a looper of a well i? known model, as will be understood by those skilled inthe art from an inspection of the accompanying drawings, and is provided Vwith a nozzle, extending into proximity with the path of movement of the knives for severing the trailing loops as'the cloth is fed pastsaid knives, said nozzle being shaped to direct a blast of air against and past the knives and in a directionto blow the loose ends of theV forwardportion of each severed loop awayfrom the loose ends of the rear portion.v If the loose ends of a loop, when it has substantial length, are not separated and kept away from the next cut, they have a tendency toentangle and at the next operation these tangled loop ends will pull out the threads that represent a spot forming the pattern of the curtain.

With the object above set forth in mind Vthe. invention comprises a looper or curtain cloth cutter, having the" features and combination of parts hereinafter described and then particularly pointed out .in the appended claims.

The preferred form of the invention, em* bodied in a looper of known model, is illustratedy in the accompanying drawings, in

whichi l .n Figure l is a view, in front elevation, of a looper as now in commercial use in textile mills, with the pneumatic apparatus of the present invention combined therewith; Fig. 2 is a view,in sectional elevation and diagrammatic yin form, of the improved looper illustrated by Fig. l, showing the path of the cloth through the machine and the relation of the nozzle to the field of operation of the loop-cutting knives; and.

Fig. 3 illustrates a portion of the cloth showing the trailing warp loops before passing the loop-cutting station.

A brief description will first be given of one type of looper as supplied to textile mills before its improvement by means of this invention, in order that the relation of the pneumatic apparatus to its mechanisms may be fully understood.V

A frame 10 supports the cutter bar, the various feed and winding rolls and guide and tension rolls and rods which direct the cloth past the loop cutting knives carried bythe cutter bar. An auxiliary frame 12 supports the mechanism for driving the feed rolls and for reciprocating the cutter bar transversely of theA path of movement of the cloth.

kReferring to- Fig. 2 a warp beam lhyhaving thereon a roll of woven curtain cloth wound loop-side inward, is placed on vertical stands 15 at the rear of the machine.

The cloth is then threaded through a set of tension rods 16 over and under guide rolls,

including a draft rollk 18, at the rear side now exposed, under and over other guide 'rolls including driven rolls 26'and 28, respectively, at the forward side of the'loopcutting station, and finally over the rolling head 30 located adjacent the bases of inclinedvstands 32 projecting from thelower fast and loose pulleys 3S (at the right of Fig. l). A. cone pulley on the driving shaft is belted to a cone pulley on the shaft i0 of the guide roll 26 (see Fig. 2\ At its right hand end the shaft 40 carries a gear 4t2 which enmeshes and drives gears la and i6 respectively on the shafts of guide roll 26 above it and the rolling head 30 below it. rlhus these three rolls are positively driven in a direction of rotation to continuously feed the cloth forward past the cutter bar 24.

Referring now to Fig. 1 the cutter-bar 24 is reciprocated in guides at the upper side of the frame 10 by a pitman 48 operated by a fly wheel 50 on a shaft 52 extending at right angles to the drive shaft. rlhe shaft 52 is belted to a parallel stub shaft 54 'beneath it which is driven from the driving shaft 36 by bevel gearing 56. The cutter bar carries two groups of knives 58 and 60 having edges facing left and right respectively as is usual in loopers.

rlhose skilled in the art understand that as the trailing loops on the advancing curtain cloth reach the zone of operation of the knives 5860, these knives, because of their shape and transverse motion, engage beneath the threads that form the loops and sever them. The piece of cloth shown in 3 as an eXainple of the curtain cloth that is operated upon, illustrates a pattern formed on a white cloth by transverse rows of alternating small green spots and large composite red and green spots, these large and small spots alternating also in the direction of the warp threads. The loops of green threads from spot to spot are comparatively short because green warp threads are woven into each spot of the pattern; but the loops of red threads from spot to spot are comparatively long because the red warp threads are woven only into each large spot of the pattern, the harness for these threads being held stationary while the small green spots are being woven.

Referring to Fig. 8 it will be observed that, in cutting the loops of a pattern such as is illustrated, after the loop-cutters have passed under and cut the loops between any two adjacent transverse rows of spots, the loose ends must be kept out of the way of the knives in the neat. cutting so that they will not tangle. If the loose ends are not kept away from the knives and they become tangled there is di'lliculty in cutting them at the ,shearing operation which finally defines each spot and completes the pattern.

To accomplish this purpose the looper is provided with a pneumatic apparatus in the form of a blower having a nozzle 62 extending parallel to the cutter-bar cross the width of the cloth and shaped to discharge a blast of air obliquely against the loose ends of the cut loops, from behind and between and beneath the loop-cutters.V rlhe nozzle 62 is at the lower edge of a hood 64 into the upper end of which air is discharged under pressure by two blowers and 72 standing on the floor at the ends of two conduits 66 and 68 respectively. Each conduit is provided with a damper 74 by means of which the volume of the air blast from the nozzle 62 can be regulated. As shown more particularly by Fig. 2 of the drawings the air blast not only serves to pick up and blow the loose ends of the forward portion of the severed loops away from the loop-cutters but also serves to blowY the rear portion away so that when the cloth is moving ready to be cut again all loose ends are kept away from the cutting. Entanglement and consequent pulling of the colored threads from the spots forming the pattern is overcome and diiliculties that otherwise would be present at the shearing operation are avoided by the use of this invention.

`While the features of the linvention have been shown and described in their preferred embodiment, it will be understood that the invention may be embodied in other types of loopers and otherwise than as shown in the drawings and described in the specication and yet be within the scope of the following claims.

What is claimed as new, is

l. rlhe combination with a looper of the type having loop cutting means and means for advancing the cloth past said loop-cutting means, of means for discharging a sheet of air downwardly and forwardly against the forward loose ends of the severed loops.

2. The combination with a looper of the type having loop cutting `means and means for advancing the cloth past said loop-cutting means, of means at the same side of the cloth as the loop cutting means for discharging an air blast downwardly and forwardly upon the operating area of said cutters and throughout the width of the cloth.

8. rllhe combination with a 'looper ofthe type having loop-cutting knives, means for feeding the cloth past said knives and means for causing the knives successively to travel transversely across the cloth to cut successive rows of loops on the cloth, of a nozzle at the looped side. of the cloth extending across the cloth behind said knives, and means for blowing air between the knives and upon the line of severance of the loops during the continued advance of the loops beyond said knives.

4. A looper comprising a cutter-bar carrying apluralit-y of loop cutters, a nozzle behind and parallel to said cutter-bar and eX- tending downwardly andv forwardly, and means for supplying air under pressure to said nozzle whereby a sheet of air is projected across the area of operation of said cutters, over the surface of the cloth in advance of said cutters and under the severed loop ends attached to said surface.

5. A looper comprising a frame, means for advancing curtain cloth across the frame with Jthe loops exposed, loop severing means above the Cloth, a blower, and a conduit from the blower terminating in a nozzle above the cloth having a mouth adjacent said severing means for directing a current of air against the line of loop severance to separate the two parts into which each loop has been divided.

In testimony whereof I alix my signature.

JOSEPH T. LEACH. 

